The present invention relates generally to the field of hardware testing, and more particularly to standard functional testing of processor hardware chips in an automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) environment.
Automatic test equipment (ATE) refers to apparatuses and methods designed to perform tests on a variety of devices such as semiconductors, microprocessors, and other similar hardware. An ATE uses control systems and automated information to perform tests on a device referred to as a device-under-test (DUT). The ATE monitors the execution of the tests, measures the results, and evaluates the DUT. In general, the objective of an ATE is to confirm whether a DUT works as intended and/or to identify manufacturing defects.